Gun sales up, prices same locally after Sandy Hook

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Chillicothe News - Chillicothe, MO

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Posted Mar. 28, 2013 at 12:34 PM
Updated Mar 28, 2013 at 12:35 PM

Posted Mar. 28, 2013 at 12:34 PM
Updated Mar 28, 2013 at 12:35 PM

Jim Swartz, owner of Medicine Creek Trading Co., has been in the firearms business for 24 years, now. He says that his gun and ammunition prices haven't drastically risen since the Sandy Hook shooting in mid-December 2012.

"Actually, our prices are probably the same," Swartz said. He did note the possibility of slightly-elevated prices due to annual first-of-the-year increases on ammunition and new guns — normally between 3 and 6 percent.

Swartz said that while ammunition prices have remained high — lead, copper, and brass prices are "the highest they've been in history" — a drastic price change post-incident was not, and is not, expected at MCTC.

That is not the case everywhere you look, though, Swartz said.

"On the Internet, people are taking advantage of...the [firearm] shortage," he said. "I won't let somebody come in and buy all of [our merchandise], because I know... they're going to put it [online], and try to make a profit. I don't believe in that."

While some gun shops may be attempting to keep prices favorable for valued customers, online brokers are capitalizing on a faction of consumers worried about possible upcoming gun control legislation.

"[President Barack] Obama's my best salesman," Swartz said. "They started talking gun legislation, and the country went crazy.

"[And] I think it's a joke," he added, in regards to expanding current gun control laws. "We have all the laws we need to have, if they'd enforce [them]. Criminals do not come into the stores and purchase firearms."

There is one area in which Swartz said he could stand to see legislative change, though.

"[When] a doctor determines a person is a danger to themselves or somebody else, they should be letting somebody know," he said, as persons with diagnosed mental illnesses are not allowed to purchase firearms.